‘Special lady’ whose books inspire learning among kids
HABIB SHAIKH (JEDDAH LETTER)“Why can’t Johnny read?” is a question posed in the United States and the reason given is that he watches too much television. To the question “why can’t Abdullah read?” the answer is that not only does he spend a lot of time watching TV, there are also no real, interesting books available for children to read.
This deficiency is being met by a young Saudi woman popularly known as “a special lady,” because she endeavours to provide a very vital need in bringing up caring, sharing, children, who will grow up to be learned citizens of tomorrow contributing to science, technology, knowledge and understanding in the true spirit of Islam and Muslims.
She is Hadeel Alabbasi, 30, and as delicate as the children’s books that she writes. Born in Makkah, she has a bachelor in economics degree from King Abdul Aziz University (KAAU).
“I was interested in writing ever since I was a child,” Alabbasi, told Khaleej Times. When she got married and had children, she realised that there was a lack of Islamic books for children in Arabic.
Khaleej Times has this article about a young Saudi mother who is working to fill the void of children’s books in Arabic. Her first couple of books were focused on Islamic values; her next couple look more at social values.
It’s a well-known fact that the Arab world suffers from a dearth of books in general. In 2003, the UN noted that over the past millenium, only 10,000 books had been translated into Arabic, the equivalent of 10 books per year for the entire region. Children’s books are certainly important and it’s great that new ones are being written on the basis of local values.
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October:15:2006 - 02:19
Do you have any pointers to who’s publishing and distributing? I guess you could self-publish about any script, but how to get the books to the kids?
October:15:2006 - 09:01
According to the article, Ms Alabbasi’s books are being published by Dar Al Ilm Al Lilmalain, based in Beirut. Since the recent trouble there, though, she’s not been able to get in touch with them. Beirut, Amman, and Cairo are the top locations for Arabic publishers, though many are now to be found in London as well.
October:15:2006 - 11:57
Good points all. I know that USAID has been doing some translation and touring for their Arabic Books Program, hard as it is to fnid out about it–I know of a few authors traveling to support a translation of his latest–but I don’t know if there is infrastructure to support outside the diplo crowd.
I guess once I finish at DLI a project will be to attempt to translate something like The Poky Little Puppy…
October:15:2006 - 13:49
State Deptartment’s Public Diplomacy Office also does translations of between 30-50 books/year into Arabic. What State does is a) identify useful titles, b) acquire rights for publishing translations, and c) through US Embassies in the region, locate a publisher willing to both translate and publish the book. State also subsidizes the publication to some extent by guaranteeing to purchase a set number of books which are later distributed by other US Embassies.
Titles are generally those which address either broad American values as reflected through arts and literature or those that address core American freedoms and politics. These include things on freedom of the press, economics, American history and biography.
It’s a very good program, but it could by expanded 100-fold to make it even better.